Carl Douglas Biography

Jamaican-born Carl Douglas was working with producer Biddu during 1974 when the necessity to record a b-side to I Want To Give You My Everything, resulted in Kung Fu Fighting, a song which apparently took only 10 minutes to record. When the Douglas composition was presented to the A&R department at Pye Records, they wisely elevated the song to an a-side. Capturing the contemporary interest in Kung Fu in films and magazines, and bestowed with a catchy chorus, the song topped the charts in both the UK and USA. Douglas, gamely dressed in martial arts garb, executed his hoo! and haaa! grunts while performing the song and kept up the novelty long enough to chart again with Dance The Kung Fu. Three years later, Douglas made a return to the UK charts with the Top 30 hit, Run Back, since when little has been heard of him, though his most famous single re-entered the UK singles chart (albeit in a re-mixed form), in 1998.

Source: The Encyclopedia of Popular Music by Colin Larkin. Licensed from Muze.